Airship



Patented Nov. 2Q, 1923.

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e'unros manna, or FRIEDRICHSHAFEN-ON-THE-BODENSEE, GERMANY, Assrcruon TOnur'rscnrrrnau znrrnnrncEsELLscnAr'r' MIT nnsc'nnleux'rnn neurons, orFRIEDRICHSHAFEN-ON-THE-BODENSEE, GERMANY. I

AIBSHIP.

Application filed August 19, 1922. Serial YrTo. 582,912.-

To all-whom it may concern: i Be it known thatI, JULIUS ERHARDT, acitizen of Germany,'residing at Friedrichshafen-on-the-Bodensee,Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in AlIShlpS,0f which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to air-ships of the kind in'which a gang-way isprovided at thebottom side of a rigid structure enclosing gas cells andis located within that structure lengthwise with respect to it.Air-ships of this kind have already been provided also with lateral orby-gang-ways lying at right angles with respect to the main-gang- 'way,or transversely respectively. Some of these bygang-ways are employed aspas sages to the'cars if these are suspended laterally from thelongitudinalaxis of the airship. The gas cells located at theby-gan'gways are bulged inwards by the structures fdrming the same.These structures 21 though connected with the main structure or trelliswork. do not form material parts of this latter; they are carried by themain frame work as are other members of the air-ship also.

It is important that the structures form- I ing the by-gang-Ways are oflow weight and permit of good connectionswith the main structure, andanother essential requirement is that the cells contacting With saidstructures and being bulged inwards by them are not damaged. On theother hand, the pressure which the gas-filled cells exert upon thestructures in question is pretty high.

The present invention relates to by-gangways formed by structuresconsisting of. practically elliptically bent tubes which are. of oblongshape in transverse section and have the long axis of this sectionalshape he in the plane of the bent tube. There is a plurality of other,i. e. in the direction from'the main gang-way to theonejand theotherside/of the air-ship, and they are connected with" each other and withthemain structure .by wires extending from the niain'gang-way to lateralmembers of the'main structure, .1. e. to structure arts located behindthe outer ends of the ygang-ways. The tubes and the wires forming theseways determine, thus, the sectional configuration, as well as suchelliptically bent orhow vshaped tubes arranged parallelly to one anthelength, of the same. The distance be tween the consecutive elliptical orsimilarly bfint gang-way-forming tubes in such that t e them,-and alsothe distance between the wires is chosenwith consideration to thatrequire-' ment, but to ensure the effect in question, cords or the likemay be provided parallelly to the flat tubes, the cords, etc, beingcarferred connected with them. The tubes, the wires and the cords, formwide-meshed'nets which are in contact with the neighboring portions ofthe gas-cells and produce in these latter the large cavities receivingthe lateral gang-way structure's.-

Making use of tubes for the lateral gangway structures is advantageousin two respects. ,Firstly the tubes have a low weight; secondly, it iseasy 'to change their sectional shape, viz to change the position of thelong axis of the flat tube, so that the lower ends of the tubes may verysecurely and convengas-cells cannot unduly slacken between ried by thewires and, if desired, or pre-' iently be connected with the bottommember of the by-gang-way, as is all more fully described hereinafter.The bottom member of each of these gang-ways extends parallel ly to themulti-angled, practically circular, circumferential members of the mainstruc ture forming the body-of the air-ship.-

My invention is illustrated, byway of example. in the accompanyingdrawing, in

which 1 is a diagrammatical illustration of a vertical transversesection through one half of the bottom portion of an air-ship providedwith by-gang-ways constructed'according to this invention, the figureshowing one such gang-way in side-view, i. e. seen from an end of theairship. Fig. 2 is a transverse section through that gangway in line a-aof Fig. 1, drawn on a somewhat larger scale. 'Fig. 3 is a-" perspectiverepresentationof a somewhat niodified form of construction. r I f l isthe main gang-way which extends in known manner lengthwise through thebody of the air-ship and is rigidly connected with the frame-work of thesame. Itis, in the example shown, assumed that'- the airship has twocars, the one on. the right hand side, the other on the left hand one.time of these,

cars (42) is shown in Figs. 1 and 3, which accessible from theby-gang-way over the ladder 5.

The bottom of the by-gang-way is formed,

inthe examples .shown, of a ladder 12 (F 3) that extends parallelly tothe main circuinferential structural members 2, of which somefportionsare visible in Figs. 1 and 3 above the car. The ladder 12terminates at the longitudinal member 3 which forms .part of the trelliswork. The ladder 5 extends from the car 4 to the end of the ladder 12.

Afiixed .to thestructural members 2 are upright bows 6 formed by benttubes offiat 0r elliptical sectional shape. The long axis of theellipsislies in the plane of the bow 6, but the ends of the bow are so deformedthat the long axis of the ellipsis ]ies parallelly to the bottom member2, as illustrated in Fig. 2.

This is donein order to be able to firmly secure the bows to'that bottommember. The size and shape of the bows 6 is such that they form aconvenient passage to the ladder 5.

There are, in the example shown in Fig. 1, two bows 6. Theygare'connected, with each other and with fthe trellis work by wires "7 whichextend fromthe adjacent structural members of the main gang-way to thepoints 9 of the lateral trellis work.v The wires 7 are connected witheach other by cords 10, located pa'rallelly to the bows 6 and form, to-:

gether with these latter and the wires, meshes purpose already stated inthe presire to be. limited to the exact details of construction andconfiguration shown and described for obvious modifications will ocourto a. person skilled in the art.

I claim: 1. In an air-ship with trellis work construction enclosing aplurality of gas cells, and with a main gang-way extendinglength wisealong the bottom of the trellis work,

the combination, with said trellis work construction, said gas cells,and said main gang- 'way, of by gangiwayslocated at right an-' glestothe main gang-way and being each composed of upright bows and of wiresconnecting said bows with each other and with the frame work, as setforth.

2. In an air -ship fwith trellis work const-ruction enclosing a.plurality of gas cells, and with a maingang-way extending lengthwisealong the bottom of the trellis work, the combination, with said trelliswork construction, said gas cells, and said main gang-way, of.by-gang-ways located at right angles to the main gang-way and being eachcomposed of upright bows formed by tubes of flat Sectional, shape, andof wires connecting said bows with each other and with the frame work,as set forth.

In an air-ship with trellis work con- 'struction enclosinga plurality ofgas'cells,

and with a main gang-way extending length wise along-the bottom of thetrellis work,

the combination with said trellis work construction, said gas cells, andsaidmain gangway, of by-gang-ways extending from said main gang-way inlateral direction and being each composed of arplurality of upright bowsof approximately elliptical configurati'on and consisting of tubes ofapproximately oval sectional shape and of wires con-. necting said bowswith each other and with the frame work, as set forth.

4. In an air-ship with trellis work construction enclosing a pluralityof gas cells,

extending and with a main-gang-way lengthwise along thezbottom of thetrellis work, the combination with said trellis work construction, saidgas cells, and said main gang-way, of by-gang-ways located atrightangles to the main ang-way and being each composed of uprigiit bowsformed by tubes of flat sectional shape, and of wires connecting saidbows with eachother and with the frame work, the structures forming thesaid by-gang-ways being located between gas cells and bulging theminwards and being adapted to support the bulged-in portions ofthe cellwalls, as set forth.

In testimony whereof I aifix my signature.

JULIUS ERHARDT. [1. Sp

Witnesses:

MAURICE W. AL'rArFnn, I B. A. SAHMAN..

